article

An Autonomous Robot for Harvesting Cucumbers in Greenhouses

Authors:

E. J. van Henten,

B. A. J. van Tuijl,

E. A. van OsAuthors Info & Claims

Autonomous Robots, Volume 13, Issue 3

Pages 241 - 258

https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020568125418

Published: 01 November 2002 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes the concept of an autonomous robot for harvesting cucumbers in greenhouses. A description is given of the working environment of the robot and the logistics of harvesting. It is stated that for a 2 ha Dutch nursery, 4 harvesting robots and one docking station are needed during the peak season. Based on these preliminaries, the design specifications of the harvest robot are defined. The main requirement is that a single harvest operation may take at most 10 s. Then, the paper focuses on the individual hardware and software components of the robot. These include, the autonomous vehicle, the manipulator, the end-effector, the two computer vision systems for detection and 3D imaging of the fruit and the environment and, finally, a control scheme that generates collision-free motions for the manipulator during harvesting. The manipulator has seven degrees-of-freedom (DOF). This is sufficient for the harvesting task. The end-effector is designed such that it handles the soft fruit without loss of quality. The thermal cutting device included in the end-effector prevents the spreading of viruses through the greenhouse. The computer vision system is able to detect more than 95% of the cucumbers in a greenhouse. Using geometric models the ripeness of the cucumbers is determined. A motion planner based on the A*-search algorithm assures collision-free eye-hand co-ordination. In autumn 2001 system integration took place and the harvesting robot was tested in a greenhouse. With a success rate of 80%, field tests confirmed the ability of the robot to pick cucumbers without human interference. On average the robot needed 45 s to pick one cucumber. Future research focuses on hardware and software solutions to improve the picking speed and accuracy of the eye-hand co-ordination of the robot.

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Wang JLin XLuo LChen MWei HXu LLuo S(2024)Cognition of grape cluster picking point based on visual knowledge distillation in complex vineyard environmentComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2024.109216225:COnline publication date: 18-Nov-2024
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Sánchez-Molina JRodríguez FMoreno JSánchez-Hermosilla JGiménez A(2024)Robotics in greenhouses. Scoping reviewComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2024.108750219:COnline publication date: 1-Apr-2024
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Yang YHan YLi SYang YZhang MLi H(2023)Vision based fruit recognition and positioning technology for harvesting robotsComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2023.108258213:COnline publication date: 1-Oct-2023
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An Autonomous Robot for Harvesting Cucumbers in Greenhouses

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Published In

cover image Autonomous Robots

Autonomous Robots Volume 13, Issue 3

November 2002

85 pages

ISSN:0929-5593

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Copyright © Copyright © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 November 2002

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Cited By

Wang JLin XLuo LChen MWei HXu LLuo S(2024)Cognition of grape cluster picking point based on visual knowledge distillation in complex vineyard environmentComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2024.109216225:COnline publication date: 18-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109216
Sánchez-Molina JRodríguez FMoreno JSánchez-Hermosilla JGiménez A(2024)Robotics in greenhouses. Scoping reviewComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2024.108750219:COnline publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compag.2024.108750
Yang YHan YLi SYang YZhang MLi H(2023)Vision based fruit recognition and positioning technology for harvesting robotsComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2023.108258213:COnline publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compag.2023.108258
Park YSeol JPak JJo YKim CSon H(2023)Human-centered approach for an efficient cucumber harvesting robot systemComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2023.108116212:COnline publication date: 1-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.compag.2023.108116
Zhang PYuan JWang DLiu XZheng X(2023)Development of a novel pull-cutting end-effector for ex-situ robotic harvesting of white asparagus based on MBD-DEM coupling simulationComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2023.107641205:COnline publication date: 1-Feb-2023
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Ren XHuang BYin H(2023)A review of the large-scale application of autonomous mobility of agricultural platformComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2023.107628206:COnline publication date: 1-Mar-2023
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Adamides GEdan Y(2023)Human–robot collaboration systems in agricultural tasksComputers and Electronics in Agriculture10.1016/j.compag.2022.107541204:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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Droukas LDoulgeri ZTsakiridis NTriantafyllou DKleitsiotis IMariolis IGiakoumis DTzovaras DKateris DBochtis D(2023)A Survey of Robotic Harvesting Systems and Enabling TechnologiesJournal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems10.1007/s10846-022-01793-z107:2Online publication date: 27-Jan-2023
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Sorour MFrom PElgeneidy KKanarachos SSallam M(2022)Produce Harvesting by Laser Stem-Cutting2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926700(487-492)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2022
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